Turnbull twins are big chips off the old block

SUMMERSIDE, P.E.I. -- Ray Turnbull admits he was a bit of a disciplinarian when it came to his boys and their sports growing up. He once left them to walk home from hockey practice when they weren't working hard enough for his liking -- or so the story goes.

"And it was minus-30 outside," Turnbull kidded.

CP

Team Manitoba's Reg Turnbull (left) and his twin Allan pose after playing Team Saskatchewan in rugby at the Canada Games in Summerside, P.E.I on Monday. The twins are the sons of curling legend Ray Turnbull.

But twins Reg and Allan, who are playing on Manitoba's rugby team at the Canada Summer Games, say they wouldn't have had it any other way.

"We used to call him The Warden," Reg said, laughing. "He's been a good dad, he's led us the right way, we got our toughness from him, that's for sure."

"Oh yeah, he's old-school, man," Allan added. "He was born in '39, he's a discipline guy. I love it though, I wouldn't be half the player I am without his modelling when I was younger."

Turnbull, once one of Canada's best curlers, is here cheering on his sons, despite having had two stents inserted into his heart less than a week ago. He wouldn't have had it any other way.

"They're good boys. They're both good students and that's the most encouraging thing," Turnbull said. "I would think I was a fairly tough father, that's for sure. But if you smother enough discipline with love, it works pretty well."

Turnbull won the 1965 Brier as the lead for the Terry Braunstein rink, and the team went on to finish second to the United States at the world curling championships.

Turnbull, now a curling analyst for TSN, encouraged his boys to pursue a wide array of sports growing up. Curling, of course, was one of them.

"I made them curl," said Turnbull. "They like it, but it wasn't their forte. But I wanted them to learn the fundamentals so they could go back to it and they did, they throw fairly well and they know the game.

"I would have liked them to have done more curling, but I wasn't going to force them."

The boys -- whom Turnbull has been known to refer to on curling broadcasts as "In-turn" and "Out-turn," curling terminology for the which way the rock spins -- picked up their first curling rock at age five, and played until they were 16. They were forced to quit because they were juggling too many sports.

-- The Canadian Press

What Manitoba did

Team Manitoba results Monday from the 2009 Canada Summer Games in P.E.I

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